Portal:Current events/2018 January 25
January 25, 2018 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Thirteen civilians travelling from Burkina Faso are killed after their vehicle struck a landmine near the village of Boni in Mali's Mopti Region. (Reuters) (AFP via Daily Sabah)
Arts and culture
- Tens of thousands of Pentecostal Christians in Mbarara, Uganda take to the streets with songs of praise and thanks to hold a common celebration seen as a way of dedicating people’s lives to Christ and preaching the gospel across the entire district. (UG Christian News)
Business and economy
- Monetary policy of the United States
- Financial analysts interpret remarks by United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin as an indication that the United States may change the strong dollar policy that it has held since the 1990s. This is evidenced by the fact that he did not deliver the usual message that a strong dollar is good for America. (CNBC)
- Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, says that Mnuchin's comments are contrary to a decades-old agreement not to "target" each other's exchange rate. The European Central Bank keeps its policy unchanged for now despite citing the euro's surge as a source of uncertainty with respect to its strong currency policy. (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- Pioltello train derailment
- At least three people are killed and over 100 injured in a train derailment near Milan, Italy. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters)
International relations
- Germany–Turkey relations
- Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, for the German caretaker government, decide to delay a decision on upgrading Turkey's German-built Leopard 2 tanks until after the formation of a new government coalition. Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says Turkey expects "solidarity and support" from its ally. (Reuters) (Jerusalem Post)
- Palestine–United States relations
- U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to stop aid to Palestine if they do not agree to partake in peace talks with Israel. (BBC)
Law and crime
- Time in Florida
- Two bills are unanimously approved by the Florida House and Senate Committees that propose moving the state permanently to Daylight Saving Time (UTC−04:00), and shifting most of the Panhandle west of a line from eastern Jackson County to northern Gulf County – which currently lies within the southern boundary of the Central Time Zone (UTC−05:00) – to the Eastern Time Zone, in alignment with the remainder of Florida's 67 counties. If passed by the state legislature, any changes would need to be approved by the Department of Transportation and Congress. (Miami Herald)
Politics and elections
- Politics of Brazil
- The Brazil Workers' Party (PT) insists that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be their candidate for the upcoming presidential election even as a conviction for corruption bars him from participating. The São Paulo stock market hits new highs and the value of the Brazilian real strengthens. (Reuters)
- Politics of Guatemala
- The Attorney General and the Head of the Anticorruption Commission of the UN, reported on a new case of corruption in the Superintendency of Tax Administration, leaving 9 people arrested, including the Former President of that organization. (ABC News)
Science and technology
- Doomsday Clock
- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the Doomsday Clock thirty seconds forward, to two minutes before midnight, the closest setting since 1953. The journal cites the closer approach to the point of hypothetical global catastrophe to the failure of world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war (particularly, tensions involving the North Korean nuclear program) and climate change. (The Washington Post) (Vice Motherboard)